


The Dark Nights of Arthur the Young

by Attempting_Writer



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate History, Damian Wayne gets a friend, Glass did Damian Wayne's arch dirty, I don't read comics all that much so some characters are a bit ooc, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Character Death, Murder, No shipping the main character please, Not Canon Compliant, Serial Adopter Bruce Wayne vs Serial Adoptee Original Character, Vampire Hunters, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23788681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Attempting_Writer/pseuds/Attempting_Writer
Summary: A series of strangely bloodless murders in Gotham.A Robin talks to animals that talk back.A hospital with the spirit of the saint it's named after roaming the halls and healing the sick.An insidious deal made between the desperate and the dead.Anyway, here's Wonderwall.
Relationships: Damian Wayne & Original Character(s), Original Female Character & Original Male Character
Kudos: 3





	1. A Typical night in Gotham

Hurried steps make their way through the dark streets of Gotham. A child quickly walks down the sidewalk, though the way he’s dressed isn’t quite fit for a nightly walk. In a Superman-themed T-shirt, a light hoodie to cover his wavy black hair, a pair of green-lensed reading glasses over his dark eyes, and some Justice League print PJ pants tucked into a pair of old sneakers, he’s glancing at the building numbers and street names as he walks along, trying to quickly find his way. He, as subtly as he can, glances behind him at the shadowed figure, slowly gaining on him and has been for about four blocks, now.

He picks up the pace taking the next corner and breaking into a run, taking the nearest alleyway, to hide from the stranger, but he slips on a puddle at the alley’s entrance, giving his pursuer enough time to turn the corner and see him scramble into the alley. The stranger stops and takes a quick look around, before pulling a switchblade from his pocket and slowly following the boy into the alley. He slowly steps in, smirking as he notices the wall at the end of the alley.

He listens closely, slowly following the sound of the boys quick breathing to a dumpster, near the end of the alley. As he grows closer to the source of the sound, he opens the switchblade and slowly grinds the blade against the metal of the dumpster. He chuckles as he turns past the corner of it.

* * *

That same alley, the next evening.

The bat mobile arrives to find a pair of squad cars, Commissioner Gordon’s car, and the forensic scientists’ van. Batman steps out and makes his way past the yellow tape, into the alley, “Commissioner Gordon, I came as soon as I could. What’s the situation?” Batman approaches the commissioner, as he finishes a conversation with one of the patrol officers. Jim Gordon turns to face him before gesturing to follow. They walk over to a dumpster, where they found the body.

“Vic’s an adult male, 38-year-old Dennis Cooke; phone and keys were still on him, but his wallet was found next to him, without cash. We suspect the time of death was sometime last night. The owner of the restaurant, here,” he gestures towards the side of the alley, the dumpster is pressed up against, “reported it about an hour ago… He was taking out the trash, when the dent in the corner here, caught his attention.” He gestured to the rear corner of the dumpster, a noticeable dent in the lid and a slightly smaller one on the metal rim, “That’s when he saw it and called it in. We thought he may have jumped or perhaps been thrown off the roof or a window, but none of these windows here open, and weirder yet…”

“Where’s the blood?” Batman kneels next to the body, making sure not to disturb the evidence too much as he checks for open wounds. Gordon nods and squats beside him, bringing a gloved hand to the victim’s neck, pointing out a small wound.

“Laceration to the neck, directly hit the artery. The victim was bled out before he was dropped. There’s not a drop of blood anywhere. Not here, not on the roof, not on the wall or in any rooms of any buildings. Sound familiar?” He stands up and pulls up his belt before scratching his chin and continuing, “This has been the sixth case of this kind of thing happening in half as many weeks. No discernable pattern in the times or locations. The only similarities between these victims are their financial status, rich parents and no _real_ job, and several of them have had sexual assault charges on them dropped, suddenly, despite the evidence stacked against them, which is something. Would be easier for us if we could find any information on each of these cases beyond archived news articles that are no longer published.”

This draws a thoughtful hum from Batman, as he thinks out loud, “Could be useful, I know a few couple of people who may know how to get more information on these articles… maybe they were all involved in the same case at some point.” He pulls a tablet out of his utility belt and begins tapping away at it, glancing back up at the Commissioner, asking, “Any idea why he’s in this alley in the first place? According to this, his place is on the other side of the city, and he doesn’t work anywhere nearby… or at all.” Batman lifts the tablet to his face for a closer look. He glances up from it a uniformed officer approaches, pulling out a notepad.

“Commissioner… Batman. We’ve checked with the man who reported a suspicious figure, last night. A man, matching the Vic’s description, was walking this way last night, following a kid. We don’t have a description of the kid, nor any CCTV footage. This side of town’s been having an increasing rodent problem and they’ve been nesting in the cameras and chewing up all the cables. That being said, the timing of the report does match up with the approximate time of death.” This draws a hum out of Batman.

This may take a while.


	2. Chapter 2

Nearby,

Sitting at the edge of an apartment building’s roof and watching the night in the city go by, the creature waits. It sits silent and still as Robin slowly approaches from behind. He crawls on all fours, distributing his weight so that the roof he’s walking on doesn’t creak underneath him. He’s downwind of the creature so that it cannot smell him. He’s low to the roof so that his shadow is less pronounced. He’s making angled breaths, careful not to disturb the air around himself too much. Once close enough, he slowly reaches a gloved hand out, his fingers less than an inch away from the nape of its neck.

An adolescent voice pipes up from the creature, “Y’know, startling a cat is a one-way ticket to being scratched, Damian,” Robin froze while the cat in in question turned its red eyes on him, continuing, “Though… I suppose it wouldn’t have counted since I noticed you a while ago.” Robin simply sighs and gets up, dusting himself off before coming to sit beside the cat and dangle his feet off the edge of the roof. He takes his glove off and idly scratches behind the cat’s ears, a gesture that it gladly accepts. The cat speaks up again, “I haven’t noticed you until you were twenty meters away, this time. You’re improving.”

Robin simply clicks his tongue as his scratching slowly traveled down to the cat’s chin. He looks down at him watching to make sure he doesn’t cut himself on the cat’s elongated canines again, saying, “That’s a smaller improvement than last time, even smaller than before that... I feel like I’m starting to plateau.” This draws a soft chuckle from the cat. “Don’t laugh at me, Arthur; what am I going to do when I stop improving?” He pouts and draws his hand back, crossing his arms.

‘Arthur’ simply sighs and shakes his head, returning his attention to the city in the distance. After a second of thought, he lets out a humored huff before speaking up, “You’re going to face adversity of every kind, Damian, especially considering your background… All you have to do is figure a way around or through it; look for another angle, use the sane part of your brain you got from your father,” Arthur gestures to his own head with a paw, “You’ll be fine, though you’d probably be a lot better off with a more stable home-life. You know… Loving supportive parents that listen and protect you, rather than making climb snowy mountains at four years old and dressing you up like a stoplight to fight criminals in America’s most crime-ridden city.”

“Says the magic, talking cat,” Damian quips, a small smile on his face as he returns to scratching Arthur behind the ears. Arthur simply huffs back, allowing a soft purr to rise from his throat before Damian continues, “But I’ll be sure to take your advice… Except the part about the parents thing. I’m fine with what I have, and I’m already accustomed to my past.” He looks out into the street, expecting Arthur to respond with the usual “ _You don’t have to be,_ ” or “ _That doesn’t mean that it’s okay or that you should be okay_ with _it,_ ”. He frowns after a few seconds of silence and looks down at him, “Arthur?” The cat turned to look up at him, an ear occasionally twitching to point behind them. Robin takes this as a sign that they weren’t alone on the roof anymore, confirming it further with the telltale sound of Batman’s grappling hook. He sighs and takes another moment to gaze into the city ahead of them.

As expected, Batman approaches from behind, saying, “Robin, we’ve got everything we could here. Are you ready to head back to the Batcave? I’ve got to check with something on the bat computer while we wait for an autopsy…” The last word was drawn out as he glances at the cat, before returning his attention to Robin, “Is Agent A Jr. getting a roommate?”

Robin shakes his head as he stands, dusting himself off as he replies, “No, simply saying hello…” He leans down and holds his fist out to Arthur, who obligingly paws at it, before straightening up and putting his glove back on. Robin starts towards the Batmobile, drawing his grappling hook from his belt, idly asking as he passes Batman, “Can I drive on the way back?” Batman hums and hands him the key, following close behind. At the edge of the roof they simultaneously fire their grappling hooks and swing away, leaving behind the red-eyed cat, Arthur.

Arthur watched as the Batmobile zoomed away, a deep red mist starting to envelope him until it faded to show a familiar young boy, a little over Damian’s age, sitting, cross-legged, at the edge of the roof. He was wearing a simple pair of worn jeans, an old, fitted leather jacket, and a pair of red, canvas shoes over plain black socks. After a moment of silence, he sighed and stood up, his red eyes still scanning for them as he brushed his dark, wavy hair out of his face. After another few seconds he huffs and leans forwards, off the edge of the roof and begins to rotate around the corner of the building before he starts to casually walk down the side, checking his watch before stepping onto a sidewalk and realigning himself.

He checked, only after he got back to the edge of the sidewalk, if there were other people around that saw him. Concluding that he was in the clear, he puts on his green tinted reading glasses and starts walking off, in the opposite direction of the crime scene.

* * *

Robin pulls the Batmobile into the Batcave, bringing it to a stop onto the lift before he and Batman step out. Batman immediately goes to the computer as Robin heads to the lockers to dress down into his civilian clothes. He hums as he checks his phone, finding a text that he received about half-way home. He unlocks his phone to read it.

> _You may have accepted it, but it doesn’t mean that you have to accept what they’ve done to you or let it change who you could be._

> _-Arthur_

> _Also, if you want to visit, do so within the week. I’ll be headed back to the hospital soup. My cataract’s almost up._
> 
> _*soon **contract. Autocorrect._
> 
> _I’ll be ready to talk about whatever you like._

> _Or consecutively beat you in Cheese Viking II over and over again, whichever you prefer._

Damian lets out a humored huff and shakes his head, before slipping his phone into his pocket. Once dressed casually, in a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, he steps over to Batman to check the computer. It looked like he was combing through a bunch of people’s internet home computers. He hums thoughtfully before glancing at their internet search history. What he sees causes him to speak up, “Why are you pulling up the internet history of a bunch of perverts?” He glances over to the autopsy reports of the victims, sans the latest one, “Ah, never mind… I’m going to my room in case you need me.”

“Goodnight Damian.” Bruce replied simply, not breaking eye contact with the monitor as it loaded the victims’ phone records and compared them to each other, before starting a pair of emails, one to youvegotbabs@gmail.com and another at supesnotsoups@kryptoncriptids.org.

Damian takes the stairs back up to the mansion and walks into his room, kicking his shoes off before flopping into bed. He lays there for a minute before pulling his phone out again, replying, and placing it on the nightstand before drifting off.


End file.
